DIGITAL DESK: Monitoring Tropical Storm Bertha (07/21/2026)

[00:00:27]Hey, good evening to all of Mississippi.

[00:00:28]Chief Meteorologist Eric Johnson here with a quick update on a Tropical Storm Bertha. Still looking at a very lopsided system out there. Uh the latest from the National Hurricane Center. Uh as of 7:00, we're likely going to get an update probably within the next 20 minutes or so and we'll have that on uh WLX News Now at 10:00. But uh we'll get that update around 10:00.

[00:00:49]Moving to the west now at about 6 mph.

[00:00:53]At 4:00 today, it was moving northwest.

[00:00:56]So at 7:00, it was moving at towards the west. So uh that's something that we're going to watch that trend. And we've also noticed the pressure rise since the last advisory. Oh, well, look, here we go.

[00:01:08]Uh just as I am talking uh on uh this digital desk update, we just got the new update uh from the National Hurricane Center. So let's go ahead and uh take a look at that. So uh just when I was just talking about the pressure, the pressure fell again back to 995. Usually when the pressure falls, that means you got a slightly stronger system. Still moving to the west though at 6 mph, 60-mph winds as of 10:00. So let's see what the new track is going to look like now that we have a new forecast track in. Let me pull that up really fast.

[00:01:44]And I don't expect that to be extremely different, but uh here's the latest forecast track.

[00:01:50]So here we go.

[00:01:51]Uh looks like the center of the storm will be working its way south of our area.

[00:01:58]It will be pretty much off the coast of South Mississippi during the day on Friday on Thursday or Wednesday rather. My apologies. The timestamp here goes out as far as the the time slide that I moved over for over here. So, ignore ignore this timestamp. Notice these timestamps here. So, tomorrow during the day we're looking at Tropical Storm Bertha about 60 to 70 mi off the coast of South Mississippi. So, with that track and the way that the storm is so lopsided we're most likely going to see most of the heavy rain falling out over the water. So, we're not expecting major impacts as we see Bertha kind of pass to the south. So, that's the latest forecast track from the National Hurricane Center.

[00:02:43]Uh here's why Bertha is so lopsided.

[00:02:45]Again, we still have lots of wind shear um coming over the Atlantic or coming from this ridge of high pressure that is uh centered to our north.

[00:02:57]And the clockwise flow around that means those strong winds are pushing all the thunderstorms uh away from the center of the storm. So, uh the wind shear is causing this storm to be very disorganized. And when you take a look at the bigger picture, uh we can see why Bertha has been moving so slow. We've had this ridge of high pressure that has been over the Atlantic here. We have this ridge of high pressure over the central part of the country. And we have this trough in the across Canada and the northeast. This ridge of high pressure is becoming more dominant. It's expanding across the southeast and pretty much uh linking up with this ridge that is building across the Atlantic. So, the clockwise flow around that is what's steering Bertha along the Gulf Coast. And for a while Bertha was kind of caught in between those two ridges between the one uh to the north and the the over in the Atlantic. And so, that's why the steering currents have been so weak.

[00:03:54]But, as we go into tomorrow, again, we see Bertha track to our south, and it'll be a lopsided storm. Most of the rain falls out over the water. We're not expecting a lot of rain tomorrow. But, there is a time period where we could have a better chance for some scattered thunderstorms, and that will come Thursday morning. You can see most of the heavy rain falls out over into the Gulf. We could see some gusty winds with this, especially along the coast. There could be some wind gusts over 40 mph at times. The closer you are to the water, the stronger the winds will be.

[00:04:24]Here's what it looks like on Futurecast, and so here's what we're looking at.

[00:04:28]For much of the morning hours, we're going to have more of a northeasterly and northerly wind across South Mississippi. And then as we progress into the early afternoon, we gradually start to see the wind become more easterly along the coast as the center passes to our south.

[00:04:47]And then as we head into the late evening hours, we see more of a southeasterly onshore flow. So, I do think if we see coastal flooding tomorrow, it's more likely in the late afternoon and evening hours going into Thursday morning, where we have the stronger winds coming in from the south and southeast. That is going to cause more of the coastal flooding issues as we work our way into Thursday morning.

[00:05:13]High tide is going to be Thursday morning. Here's just another look at Futurecast as we progress throughout the day. Again, not expecting a lot in the way of heavy rain during the day on Wednesday. There will likely be some passing showers, a few spiraling rain bands across the area.

[00:05:30]We may even see some sunshine during the day, off and on, partly cloudy skies with breezy conditions, passing showers throughout the day.

[00:05:38]But, watch as we go into Thursday morning. Once we see the center well to our west, we might have a little bit better chance for some scattered thunderstorms on Thursday. A few of those could be on the heavy side as that circulation continues to work its way off towards the west.

[00:05:54]Here's a look at the storm surge potential anywhere from 2 to 4 ft, especially when we have more of that onshore flow that's going to be more predominant.

[00:06:01]High tide on Thursday morning is basically from 4 to about 7:00 in the morning. So, that's when I I expect it as we go into Wednesday night into Thursday morning, low-lying areas along Hancock, Harrison, Jackson counties, tidal rivers, tidal bayous, bays, those areas that typically flood when we see onshore winds, that's where we're expecting that to occur. But tonight, it is a calm, clear night out there and things are a little breezy. As we go into Wednesday and Thursday, again, often on scattered showers are possible during the day on Wednesday.

[00:06:34]Maybe a little bit better chance for some thunderstorms on Thursday.

[00:06:37]We looks like rain chances kind of go down as we go into the weekend and early next week, looks like things start to heat back up. So, we see a return of the heat as we work our way into early next week.